Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo, a leading figure in the struggle for preserving the integrity of the land of Israel, who is presently in the midst of last-minute preparations for the Gush Katif Museum dinner in New York on February 22, was summoned by the Israeli police for questioning last Thursday.

His interrogator showed him a video clip of a ceremony in Jerusalem over a year ago, with prominent Rabbis and Knesset members present. It showed Rabbi Wolpo presenting a “Hero of Israel” certificate, together with 26,000 New Shekels, to a soldier’s parents. The soldier, at a previous initiation ceremony held at the Western Wall to swear in new IDF recruits, had led a group of soldiers recruits in raising a banner proclaiming that they swore to protect the Jewish state and its people, but not to evict Jews from their homes. For this courageous act he was sentenced to 26 days in military jail. When any soldier is jailed for such acts, the Museum awards his parents 1000 New Shekels for every day of his jail sentence – “as a sign of esteem for their merit of having raised such children who are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the people and land of Israel,” as Rabbi Wolpo says.

The interrogator informed Rabbi Wolpo that he is under suspicion of encouraging soldiers to disobey orders, a crime liable to heavy punishment. Rabbi Wolpo declared that he intends to continue on this path, because it is inconceivable that a young person initiated into the IDF at the Western Wall with an oath to protect his people and homeland, should later be compelled by his commanders to transgress that oath by aiding the enemy’s battle against Jews faithful to their homeland.

“I’m not encouraging disobedience to orders,” declared Rabbi Wolpo to the police investigator. “I’m encouraging soldiers to follow the order of G-d, who gave the entire land of Israel to the Jewish people and commanded us to settle every part of it. Disobeying orders are those trying to please the enemy by advocating establishment of a terror state in the heart of the Holy Land. We already see the results of that policy, following the expulsion of thousands of Jews from Gush Katif and northern Samaria – a senseless act that has already brought loss of life and limb to hundreds of Jews from missiles fired from the territory of Gush Katif, and that has only distanced us ever further away from peace!”

“Do you have anything to add?” asked the interrogator as he concluded his questioning.

“Yes,” replied Rabbi Wolpo. “From this interrogation chamber, I want to call on all our dear brethren who are soldiers to refuse any such order that is so clearly illegal!”

Bearing in mind that this summons was issued over a year since the original award ceremony, some have raised suspicions that its odd timing was intended to intimidate the organizers of the Gush Katif Museum’s dinner in New York, warning them not to use the dinner to speak out against the government’s policies of concessions and evictions from settler outposts.

Usually reliable sources have informed us that the dinner’s impressive gallery of speakers – including respected diplomat John Bolton, influential media personality Glenn Beck, and renowned Jewish entertainer Jackie Mason, who will all speak for preserving the integrity of the land of Israel and against concessions and expulsions – is unnerving for those close to Israel’s government, who still believe in the now bankrupted solution of “two states for two peoples.”

In any case, many Israel government ministers and prominent Knesset members have already given their blessing to the gathering, and according to sources close to the museum, their good wishes will be shown and heard at the dinner.

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